#hell the way the point system works would make this closer to a dating sim than to a vn

[quetzalpapalotl]

So this is how Disco Elysium has been going, I am no longer quitting my job every time something bad happens, but I only have 2 points in both health and morale and brother says that's too low but I think it's fine since I can just chug medicine. Which is very cheap. Unlike speed. I would unstoppable if I had the funds to be on speed 24/7.

Anyway, I love Kim and nothing matters to me as much as gaining his love, or at leats his approval. Unfortunately, I keep doing stuff just because I can, so I end up doing things like exhorting money off a guy which Kim didn't like. I'm so sorry, Kim. I also keep getting morale damage because every time inland empire tells warns me against doing something that will remind me of my ex-wife, I do it anyway. So maybe I should restrain myself.

I barely understand the game's mechanics and keep messing up, but that's all well and good because it makes me connect with Harry. I like to introject characters when playing games.

Encyclopedia is my best friend, to no one's surprise.

[thejazzspot]

Phil Woods and his European Rhythm Machine ‎- Phil Woods and his European Rhythm Machine (1970, Les Disques Pierre Cardin - CAR 333 U, Fra)

Phil Woods is surely among the most respected names in the history of Jazz. He played and recorded with seminal figures of bebop but also with a vast batch of contemporary Jazz artists and of more alternative forms of this genre. From his immense legacy of collaborations one can highlight Benny Goodman, Thelonious Monk, Dizzie Gillespie, Buddy Rich, Quincy Jones, Zoot Sims, Lee Konitz, Jean-Luc Ponty, Tom Harrell, John Riley and Hal Galper, among many others. In addition to his numerous contributions as sideman, it is equally relevant that Woods has led his own bands since the mid-1950s, through which he refreshed the bop tradition with his compositions and captivating solos.

Woods' style on the alto saxophone helped define a school of post-Charlie Parker stylists in the line of musicians like Cannonball Adderley. Parker's basic vocabulary has been extended to a broader phrasing, and Woods’ full-bodied tone, occasionally decorated by growls and other blues inflections, makes him an exciting and easily recognizable performer.

Leaving behind a promising career in the United States as leader and sideman, Woods headed to Europe, believing that this would be a healthier place for a jazz musician (both politically and culturally). And it was in Paris, in a short time, that Woods formed his European Rhythm Machine with Daniel Humair on drums, Henri Texier on bass and George Gruntz on piano (later replaced by Gordon Beck).

Released by the almost unknown label founded by fashion designer Pierre Cardin, and later by the American Inner City, "Phil Woods and his European Rhythm Machine" reveals a new phase of Woods' career as musician and composer. While not a very representative record for his more traditional followers, this studio debut with his European lineup is surely a work relevant to Phil Woods' more exploratory career and to Jazz made in the old continent.

Under the artistic direction of Emmanuel "Pinpin" Sciot, the peculiar illustration of the cover (and back cover) was left to an English artist mainly known for the creation of strange mechanical inventions. In a kind of satire to technological evolution, Rowland Emett created the funny information system "Fleur Bleue", imagined for Honeywell Inc.

With regard to music, the introduction is made to the sound of "Chromatic Banana", certainly the most representative of the themes of this album. Over the course of 12 minutes, Wood and his peers give birth to a varied palette of sounds ranging from an intense and rhythmic jazz fusion to more atmospheric moments. Under the excellent marking of Texier and Humair, and a keyboard that transports us to the psychadelic frames of "Bitches Brew", Woods' saxophone brings this piece closer to the avant-garde territories. In the second half, the theme incurs to moments of a pleasant improvisation, with an immense solo by Texier accompanied by his voice in a sort of scat-singing. "C'est pas mal", one can hear at the end, before a new attack by the quartet takes place.

By Gordon Beck, "Ultimate Choice" is based on a piano-saxophone dialogue, where Woods' straight-ahead bop register is elaborated under a fast and complex structure. Resembling the flight of a fly, the saxophonist's thrilling attacks are balanced with a rhythmic section marked by a captivating enthusiasm that culminates in a great drum solo.

On a warmer tone, the B-side begins with Phil Woods's well-known composition "The Last Page", recreated here with a sonority marked by Gordon Beck's keyboards, but also by Woods' approach with instruments such as the clarinet and the Varitono sax (in addition to the alto saxophone). In a compositional combo, "The Last Page" merges Gordon Beck's "Sans Melodie," on a bridge between a classic ballad and a more bop/rock beat.

Through ways with a progressive rock hint, the short "A Look Back" (that connects to the final theme) is marked by Phil Woods' spontaneity and exploratory sense in an adventure with the use of a tape recorder and a varied percussion. Finally, in another theme by Beck, "The Day When the World ..." is introduced to the folk flavor of the Hohner electric piano progressing to a rhythmic rock-fusion. Concluding in an original way, the musicians are introduced (in English and French) by one of Phil Woods' sons that ends like this: - "From America, my dad Phil Woods on alto saxophone". - "Non, c'est mon Pápá, Philippe du Bois, from France!"

For all this, one can say we stand before a pleasant mix of a straight bebop with moments of a more avant-garde experimentation. The music of this record is unpredictable, spiritual, exciting and full of surprises, with Gordon Beck in great shape and Phil Woods thinking "out of the box" but without losing his identity. In fact, Gordon Beck's keyboards (piano and organ) and the more liberating forms adopted by Phil Woods seem to be the main points of distinction of this session. However, the remaining members can not be disassociated from the overall sound of this date. Henri Texier's fluent and inventive forms (bass, flutes, percussion and voice) as well as Daniel Humair's creativity and polyrhythmic approach (drums and percussion) are equally crucial elements for the more exploratory vein emerging from this session.

Among various curiosities there is a transcription (in the inner cover) of a correspondence received from an admirer disappointed with the new direction Phil Woods was taking on this album. "What happened? Where's the melody? What the hell is a Chromatic Banana" are some of the questions to wich Woods answers in a somewhat jocular tone. Moreover, along the liner notes it can also be found several hilarious comments that show the joviality and the good mood reigning during the making of this recording.

One of the greatest bop saxophonists of all time, Phil Woods had a long and productive career but his passage through Europe would definitely mark his artistic progression. Although he has again changed direction after returning to the United States, the creative and colorful music he played during his stay in Europe (even though not being consensual to his followers) represents an undeniable reference in his career.

Mister W

Total or partial reproduction of the contents of this site is strictly prohibited. It can only occur with prior permission of the author. To that end, please contact wjazzspot@gmail.com

*** Portuguese Version ***

Phil Woods é seguramente um dos nomes mais respeitados da história do Jazz. Tocou e gravou com figuras seminais do bebop mas também com um vasto lote de artistas do jazz contemporâneo e de outras formas mais alternativas deste género. Do seu imenso legado de colaborações podemos destacar Benny Goodman, Thelonious Monk, Dizzie Gillespie, Buddy Rich, Quincy Jones, Zoot Sims, Lee Konitz, Jean-Luc Ponty, Tom Harrell, John Riley e Hal Galper, entre muitos outros. Para além das suas inúmeras contribuições como sideman, é igualmente relevante o facto de Woods ter liderado as suas próprias bandas desde meados da década de 1950, através das quais refrescou a tradição bop com as suas composições e solos contagiantes.

O estilo de Woods no saxofone alto ajudou a definir uma escola de estilistas pós Charlie Parker na linha de músicos como Cannonball Adderley. O vocabulário básico de Parker foi extendido a um fraseado mais amplo e o tom encorpado de Woods, ocasionalmente decorado por rosnados e outras inflexões pelo blues, faz dele um executante excitante e facilmente reconhecível.

Abandonando uma carreira promissora nos Estados Unidos como leader e sideman, Woods rumou á Europa, acreditando que esta seria um lugar mais saudável para um músico de jazz (tanto política como culturalmente). E foi em Paris, num curto espaço de tempo, que Woods formou a sua European Rhythm Machine com Daniel Humair na bateria, Henri Texier no baixo e George Gruntz no piano (mais tarde substituido por Gordon Beck).

Editado pela quase desconhecida editora discográfica fundada pelo desenhador de alta-costura Pierre Cardin, e mais tarde pela norte americana Inner City, “Phil Woods And His European Rhythm Machine” revela-nos uma nova fase da carreira de Woods como músico e compositor. Mesmo n��o sendo um disco muito representativo para os seus seguidores mais tradicionais, esta estreia de estúdio com a sua formação Europeia é seguramente uma obra relevante para a carreira mais exploratória de Phil Woods e para o Jazz feito no velho continente.

Sob a direcção artística de Emmanuel “Pinpin” Sciot, a peculiar ilustração da capa (e contra-capa) foi deixada a cargo de um artista inglês conhecido sobretudo pela criação de estranhas invenções mecânicas. Numa espécie de sátira á evolução tecnológica, Rowland Emett dá aso à sua imaginação com um divertido desenho do computador “Fleur Bleue”, imaginado para a Honeywell Inc.

Quanto á música, a introdução faz-se ao som de “Chromatic Banana”, por certo o mais representativo dos temas deste àlbum. Ao longo de 12 minutos, Wood e os seus pares dão corpo a uma variada palete de sons que variam entre um Jazz de fusão, intenso e ritmado, e momentos de maiores contornos atmosféricos. Sob a excelente marcação de Texier e Humair, e um teclado que nos transporta para o psicadelismo de discos como “Bitches Brew”, o saxofone de Woods eleva esta peça para territórios mais próximos do jazz avant-garde. Na segunda metade, o tema incorre por momentos de uma agradável libertação improvisacional, com um imenso solo de Texier acompanhado pela sua voz (ao que se julga) em jeito de scat-singing. “C'est pas mal”, ouve-se no final, antes de uma nova investida do quarteto.

Da autoria de Gordon Beck, “Ultimate Choice” tem por base um diálogo piano/saxofone alto, onde o registo mais bopiano de Woods é fundido sob uma estrutura rápida e complexa. Assemelhando-se ao vôo de um moscardo, as investidas alucinantes do saxofonista são equilibradas por uma secção rítmica marcada por um entusiasmo captivante que culmina num belo solo de bateria.

Numa toada morna, o lado B tem início com a conhecida composição de Phil Woods “The Last Page”, aqui recriada com uma sonoridade marcada pelos teclados de Gordon Beck mas também pela abordagem de Woods que aqui recorre a instrumentos como o clarinete e o saxofone varitono (para além do habitual alto). Numa combo composicional, "The Last Page” funde-se com “Sans Melodie" de Gordon Beck, numa ponte entre a balada e um ritmo mais bop/rock.

Por caminhos com laivos de rock progressivo, o curto "A Look Back" (que estabelece a ligação ao tema final) é marcado pela espontaneidade e sentido exploratório de Phil Woods numa aventura com o recurso a um gravador e a uma percussão variada. Por fim, em mais um tema da autoria de Beck, "The Day When the World..." é introduzido ao sabor folk do piano eléctrico Hohner para se deslocar para um ritmado rock de fusão. Concluindo de uma forma original, os músicos são apresentados (em inglês e francês) por um dos filhos de Phil Woods que termina desta forma: -“From America, my dad Phil Woods on alto saxophone”. -”Non, c'est mon Pápá, Philippe du Bois, from France!”

Por tudo isto, podemos dizer que estamos perante uma agradável mistura de um bop mais direto com momentos de uma experimentação mais vanguardista. A música deste registo é imprevisível, espirituosa, estimulante e cheia de surpresas, com um Gordon Beck em grande nível e um Phil Woods a pensar “fora da caixa”, sem no entanto perder a sua identidade. Efectivamente, os teclados (piano e orgão) de Gordon Beck e as formas mais libertadoras adoptadas por Phil Woods, parecem constituir as principais marcas diferenciadoras desta sessão. Contudo, os restantes membros não podem de forma alguma ser desassociados da sonoridade global deste trabalho. As formas fluentes e inventivas de Henri Texier (contra-baixo, flautas, percussão e voz) bem como a criatividade e a abordagem poli-rítmica de Daniel Humair (bateria e percussão) são elementos igualmente cruciais para a veia mais exploratória que ressalta desta sessão.

De entre os vários detalhes curiosos, destaca-se uma transcrição (na capa interior) de uma correspondêcia recebida de um admirador descontente com a nova direcção que Phil Woods decidira tomar neste álbum. “What happened? Where's the melody? What the hell is a Chromatic Banana” são algumas das perguntas que Woods faz questão de responder com uma divertida abordagem num tom algo jocoso. De resto, ao longo das notas do disco, são vários os comentários hilariantes que deixam transparecer a jovialidade e o clima da boa disposição reinante durante a feitura desta gravação.

Um dos maiores saxofonistas “bop” de todos os tempos, Phil Woods teve uma carreira longa e produtiva mas a sua passagem pela Europa viria a marcar em definitivo o seu percurso no jazz. Embora tenha novamente mudado de direcção depois de regressar aos Estados Unidos, a música criativa e colorida que tocou durante a sua estadia na Europa (mesmo não sendo consensual junto dos seus seguidores) constitui uma inegável marca de referência no seu percurso artístico.

Mister W

A reprodução dos conteúdos deste espaço é expressamente proibida. A mesma só poderá ocorrer com a autorização prévia do autor. Para tal, favor contactar wjazzspot@gmail.com

[dramallamadingdang]

‘Tis reply time!

For @criquette-was-here, @alexbgd, @scibirg, @simsllama, @didilysims, @emeraldfalconsims, @getmygameon, @holleyberry, @raindropdrinkwater, and @ilikefishfood...

Hilarious! Wandering through original game resources is always a great fun ��

This was actually the first time I’ve seen something like that. Maybe I need to pay closer attention...

alexbgd replied to your post “*plays Castaway Stories* WHY DOES THE TAB KEY NOT WORK??! Oh, right,...”

I also wish they have button for hunger, bathroom etc in sims 2 like in castaway..

scibirg replied to your post “*plays Castaway Stories* WHY DOES THE TAB KEY NOT WORK??! Oh, right,...”

what i like the most in castaway are the keys you can press to get sims to fill their motives, like H for Hunger. i always try to press h when i get back to ts2.

Yeah, those buttons ARE really nice! It’d be nice to have them for TS2. They really reduce the mouse clicks, if you use them. Which I guess was kinda the point since the Stories games were designed with laptops in mind. Not everyone has a mouse for their laptop and, at the time the games were made, not all laptops had nice touchpads but rather those stupid little pain-in-the-butt mouse buttons. :P My only problem with those keys is that I tend to hit “Y” for hygiene when what I really want is “U” for cameraman mode. But that’s more because I’m a sloppy typist.

simsllama replied to your post “*plays Castaway Stories* WHY DOES THE TAB KEY NOT WORK??! Oh, right,...”

I never knew that you can do it with the key 'U'! ��

Yup! That’s how you get into cameraman mode in the game. I assume it’s that way in all the Stories games. Otherwise, it’s hard to take nice pics. :)

didilysims replied to your photo “So what do you do when you have way too many babies on a lot and not...”

Ha ha, you are so lucky the social worker wasn't stranded here too. :P

Inorite?! Then again, even if she was, it’s not like there’s anywhere she could take away the kids to. :) Unless she wanted to raise the little hellions herself or something.

emeraldfalconsims replied to your post “Preggo Komei!”

Your Goopy reminds me of a cross between Glen Quagmire and Gaius Baltar.

I confess that I had to look up both. :) I’ve never watched Family Guy and only watched the new Battlestar Galactica once, years ago. (Now, if it was the original Baltar? Totally clear memory there. John Colicos was a scenery-chomping god. :) ) But now that I’ve done my looking-up...Yeah, I can see it. Especially if you add a bit of surfer-dude to the mix. :)

didilysims replied to your post “Sims ask: 7 8 17 :)”

I didn't know there WAS a great debate until I saw this meme floating around. Thanks for educating me. ;)

Well, it was a great debate a while back. As I recall, there was some sort of livestream or something prior to TS4′s release where the devs were playing a bit to show off the game, and one of them said “Live Mode” with “live” pronounced with a short “i.” Then there was The Debate. (That short-i dev was completely delusional. Obviously. :) )

didilysims replied to your photo “Brandi LeTourneau. Or, as I call her, “Big Hair” LeTourneau. ...”

Does the game keep track of fish caught/fruit eaten/etc. for you or are you manually doing that?

Manually, unfortunately. I wish there was some sort of modded object, like that painting someone made that counts dream dates and whatnot, but...alas. Then again, I think that painting works by looking at memories, and since the things I’ve targeted don’t generate memories, I’m screwed, anyway. :) Thankfully, no one’s been doing much of anything other than toddler-wrangling lately, sooooo... :)

didilysims replied to your post “So you’re stranded with seven other complete strangers on what may or...”

Those sleeping positions are...different.

They kind of sprawl, yes. The animations are funny, too. To get into the bed, they stand with their back to it and flop backwards. The sprawl they land in is how they sleep. I’m guessing those animations is why the leaf beds weren’t converted to TS2. Which is a shame.

getmygameon replied to your post “Preggo Komei!”

Well that's the door to the 7th hell blown wide open right there...

It’s the door of all the hells blown open, yes... Well, actually, no, it’s really not all that bad. Two of the toddlers are children now, and children pretty much totally free-will in this scenario, so I don’t have to do anything with them. Just watch them be kids, basically. Five of the remaining toddlers are about to age to child as I type, so I’ll just be left with two toddlers -- Who will age the next day -- and two babies. And no one’s currently pregnant, either. Easy-peasy. :)

holleyberry replied to your photo “Say whatever you want about Sandy Bruty. I think she’s very pretty....”

As you know, I am a BIG Sandy Bruty fan. I think with the right hairstyle and make up she's a real beauty.

Even without hair/makeup, I just think her facial structure is striking. Maybe it’s because she has fairly large eyes, which I always find attractive. (Though not when they’re unrealistically-large, like in anime-style.) She has nice cheekbones, too. Yeah, her mouth/lips are a little extreme, but it’s easy to overlook that, IMO. Plus, she’s a Romance Sim, and I have a weakness for those. They’re just so fun because sex-postitivity is fun.

holleyberry replied to your post “Sim Parenting: A comparative study”

I've always said romance sim males make very good daddies.

They do, yes. Get them in a more committed relationship and their romance-y wants focus on their partner(s), mostly. Sure, there’s the occasional want to “cheat,” but my feeling when playing committed/married Romance Sims is that they’re more the open-relationship type, and I imagine that their partners, if they’re not Romance themselves, would lean more that way, too, that they’d kind of have to in order to make a decision to commit themselves to a Romance Sim, who they have to know is going to want to “cheat.” Right? I mean, they’d know that. Unless they’re really stupid. :) 

But that’s why I think you get Goopy/Sandy right in your story. They love each other, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not interested in other people, too. And you know what? There’s nothing wrong with that.  But I’ll stop before I get on a soapbox. :) 

And yeah, Romance Sims do tend to be kid-interactive, too. I think it’s because most of the pre-made Romance Sims, playable or otherwise, were given more playful personalities. That seems to be the key to good, attentive parenting in the game. It’s probably why Ben Long is a good dad, too; although he’s Knowledge, he’s got 7 playful points. Sandy’s got 8 playful points, and she’s all over her alien twins in this scenario. Pre-made Family Sims tend to get the Cancer personality, which is middle-of-the-road boring...and fairly serious, too. Which is totally not conducive to kid interaction.

raindropdrinkwater replied to your post “Sim Parenting: A comparative study”

Yup. In my experience, family sims aren't even that good at taking care *of themselves*. Swoon over the romance sim? Check. Complain about not being pregnant often enough? Check. Feed oneself, or one's spawn? Hmpff. Who has time for that?

*nods* Very true. It always dismays me that, when people play “Orphanage” challenges, they tend to make the adults Family Sims. It makes me want to scream, “NOOOOOOOOOO!” They’re the absolute worst choice for that. Family Sims are breeders in the worst sense of the word. They’re all about having the kids, but not at all about actually taking care of them or loving on them. And they definitely don’t care about kids that aren’t their own. For that, you need playful Pleasure Sims. They’re the best kid-raisers ever. 

But since there’s no Pleasure aspiration in Castaway, the Romance Sims are stepping up to the plate. Goopy and Sandy are amazing in this scenario. :) Ben Long the Knowledge Sim is right there with them, too, and Andrea Hogan the Fortune Sim seems content to be the support system who’s always happy to empty the potty and change diapers when needed. :) And play with the kids, too, since she’s got 8 playful points. :) Whereas Orlando the Family Sim? Yeah, I’m contemplating nasty things for his future... ;)

ilikefishfood replied to your photoset “When you spend hours on stuff that’s purely, uselessly decorative....”

I do the saaaame thing! Lol! It's gorgeous, by the way!

I’m not alone! *tosses confetti* And thank you. :)

[vrheadsets]

Luke Thompson On VR Sickness, Sigtrap Games’ Future Plans & What VR Must Do In 2017

At the end of last year VRFocus was in attendance at the Develop:VR, an event at which we saw some of the most entertaining, thrilling and intriguing uses of virtual reality (VR). From it’s use in video games to film and entertainment to even learning how to test an electrical circuit box safely. We also found some of the ways you shouldn’t implement VR.

Amongst the more interesting talks was that of Sigtrap Games Co-Founder Luke Thompson, who in his discussion “Techniques for Comfortable Movement in VR” described the hows, whys and wherefores of player movement’s potential to cause discomfort in VR. As well as some of the methods developers can implement in order to reduce the possibility of sim-sickness and bolster comfort levels.

After his session we took Thompson aside to discuss these topics further and also see what he thought 2017 has in store for the VR industry.

VRFocus: You were talking about sickness today- motion-sickness in VR. Are we any closer to getting this problem solved once and for all?

Luke Thompson, Sigtrap Games: [laughs] Ultimately I don’t think so. I mean – until you either have something that gets injected straight into your brain to sort of trick your vestibular system, or you have, you know, home devices where you literally move in one of those Lawnmower Man things – there are always going to be issues with it. It is, like I said, a fundamental mismatch between the different stimuli that your brain’s getting. So unless you can fake one of them sufficiently, even if you can sort of improve things to 99%, there’s always going to be the 1% of people who react badly to any particular technique.

So it’s a difficult one to ever say you’ve fully solved. We can sort of get closer and what really I think we should be aiming towards is a conclusive set of best practices, where we really understand what’s going wrong – not necessarily with a view to saying ‘we can solve all these problems’, but if we can understand them all and know how best to circumvent them, then that’s probably a more realistic goal, at least in the short term.

VRFocus: Okay. In terms of ways of preventing or minimalising the effect, though, I mean, is there one that stands out above all the others at the moment; would you say that?

Thompson: I, well, uh – with the caveat that this is all with given our experience, and-

VRFocus: Yes.

Thompson: -and again, it’s not going to apply to all games all the time, but certainly something, like I said in the talk, the best bang for buck is this sort of tunnelling, vignetting effect – where you restrict peripheral vision, based on the motion that’s happening in the game. Your brain gets a lot of its motion cues from that peripheral vision, and more so than it does from the centre of your vision, so, by restricting the information that it’s getting in that area of the eye, you can really do a lot to minimalise the amount of motion that your brain is trying to interpret. So, in terms of it being simple to implement, widely effective, and computationally extremely cheap, [there really is, like] it should be the first thing on any list of measures to implement.

VRFocus: So, 2016. It’s been quite a year, in many, many ways – but especially for VR. Do you think 2016’s was ‘The Year of VR’ as everyone has been terming it since the beginning of-

Thompson: No.

VRFocus: -you don’t think it has?

Thompson: No, no. Um, because, I think VR is going to, a few years from now, dwarf this year. I think we are, you know, what we’re seeing this year is the beginning of something. There are so many more things that we can do with VR that we haven’t figured out yet. Like, this year may provide the kernel of a lot of that. But this isn’t The Year of VR. This is The Year That VR Began. Right? Five years from now, there’s going to be so much more. We’re going to understand so much more. We’re going to be doing such exciting things with it, that I really think to call THIS The Year of VR would be to undersell the potential of VR.

VRFocus: In terms of what’s been done this year – I mean, you say about, the future will dwarf, I would say that 2016 certainly has dwarfed 2015-

Thompson: Mmhmm.

VRFocus: -as to what we’ve seen – what’s the most creative thing you’ve seen in VR this year?

Thompson: Creative…?

VRFocus: I mean, it could be anything, I know, but-

Thompson: No, that’s – that’s interesting.

VRFocus: But [VR has] been taken in so many different ways already. Is there anything that sort of sticks out in your mind as seeing something and going “wow, I wish I’d thought of that” or…?

Thompson: That’s tricky, actually. I mean, there’s been so much. I mean, one of the things that, again, one of the reasons that I feel like this year hasn’t been The Year of VR is because we haven’t really – you know, one of the things is that we haven’t figured out that killer app yet. We haven’t figured out, what is it that VR does that nothing else does? And we know those answers are there, and we’re starting to find them.

But, to really point out something that says, you know – I would like to be able to point out something where I could say “that has defined VR”, right? And that’s not something we can say here. Because we haven’t found that foothold yet. We know that those answers are there. We know the potential is there. We don’t know what the answers are yet. So, there has been a hell of a lot of awesome stuff this year. But I would say that most of it, for better or worse, has been within the confines of how we already understand games, rather than necessarily taking something to a new medium.

VRFocus: We’ve just translated what we knew from then, to what we have now.

Thompson: Exactly. And we’re starting to branch out from that, which is really exciting. And there are experiments that people have done. Just generally, the sort of things like – okay, here’s an example: Budget Cuts. The idea of using portals to move through the world, is really cool. Those things that you can, because – you’re toying about with, experiencing non-Euclidean geometry in a way that makes sense with your 3D understanding of the world, and that’s something you can’t do any other way. So that’s really cool. You have other things – do you know Unseen Diplomacy?

VRFocus: Yes, and funnily enough, I asked this question of somebody earlier and they said, “Unseen Diplomacy.”

Thompson: Yeah. Unseen Diplomacy is a really cool thing, and we’re actually working on something ourselves. So, we were working on something – and we’re still working on it – when we hadn’t actually heard of Unseen Diplomacy; and we were interested in a lot of the same things they were, and they were like “oh, [they’ve] already made this” – so it’s interesting seeing what sort of similarities. I can’t say too much about it, but we’re really excited about it. But one of the core things there is that social aspect of VR, and the fact that VR by its nature is very isolating; but thinking of cool ways around that and ways to even leverage that, to say, “I’m going to control what this other person can see in an interesting way”, and change how people communicate, with a local multiplayer setting; there’s some really cool opportunities there. And Unseen Diplomacy does that well! So. I suppose, if you wanted a concrete answer, those are maybe the ones to go for.

VRFocus: So. 2017. You mentioned this ‘other’ project, but what else is happening with Sigtrap Games? We’ve obviously got Sublevel Zero–

Thompson: Yep. So, Sublevel Zero – I can’t put a date on it yet, but it will be coming out early next year, and we’ll be targeting [Oculus] Rift and [HTC] Vive for that. We’re really excited to get that out.

We’ve already got a beta version of that on Steam and on GOG – for people who already own the game on there, they can opt into a beta and sort of see what we’re doing. A lot of the stuff we’re doing just right at the moment, because we are such a small team, we’re concentrating on the 2D console versions of the game, which are going to come out very early next year. And a lot of the stuff we’re doing on there, the optimisations in particular, really play back into the VR stuff. But it has taken a little bit of our time away from that, unfortunately. But we’ve got a lot of great ideas on what we’re going to be doing with that for release next year. We’re also, like I say, we’re working on that project that I’ve hinted at. We’re working on something else as well which we’re extremely excited about, and again-

VRFocus: Is that VR or non-VR?

Thompson: They’re both VR. So we’re not – we don’t see ourselves as an exclusively VR studio but, at the moment, the gameplay ideas that we want to explore are in VR; and ultimately, the reason for that is, what I was saying about not knowing what it is yet that VR can do that other mediums can’t. And that’s what we want to do! We want to do things in VR that you can’t do otherwise, really use-

VRFocus: So it’s not having those rules, and the freedom of creativity is opening the doors for other things.

Thompson: Exactly.

VRFocus: Again – if we discussed about what the future will bring, what’s the one thing that VR needs to do, above all else, in 2017?

Thompson: Well the obvious answer is wireless. That’s kind of the clear and present thing, getting rid of those wires and untethering you from this big brick of computational power. That’s very tricky to get right, but, you know, next year we might see things that do that well.

VRFocus: Have you tried the Santa Cruz, or any of the HTC adapters?

Thompson: I haven’t tried the wireless ones, unfortunately. I think it’s more likely that it’s going to go the way of Santa Cruz rather than the wireless add-ons for HTC Vive and things like that. The main reason there is, my primary concern is latency – if they can solve the latency problem with wireless, then that’s great – again, I haven’t tried it, so I don’t know how far along they are.

VRFocus: With the Vive, there’s also multiple separate entities as well. It’s not HTC themselves.

Thompson: Exactly. So you’re talking about things where all the different hardware can kinda get in each other’s way and you’ve gotta really optimise those things for it to be a good experience. So I suspect you’re going to see more things like Santa Cruz that sort of do the inside-out tracking and have the computational power actually attached to your head to begin with. Obviously, that’s not necessarily the way to go in the medium term – if you can get rid of the wireless latency problem, then you can pump a lot more data out of a computer than you can out of essentially two mobile phones strapped to your head. But I think in the short term it’s gonna happen. So, I think in terms of making VR get out to a wider audience, in terms of hardware, wireless is that thing that it really needs.

But the more subtle answer, I think, is a killer app. We need something that shows what VR can do that nothing else can do. That’s what gonna drive people to get involved with VR and buy it and try it out, and evangelise their friends. At the moment, it’s a cool piece of tech. But that’s for geeks like us, right? We’re like, “AWW, that’s cool, that’s cool! I’ll try that and I’ll spend two hours setting this thing up!” Like, it’s really nice that PSVR has given slightly more mainstream players a chance-

VRFocus: Ready access.

Thompson: -exactly, a chance to- and because they don’t care about the numbers, you know? They don’t care that the resolution’s slightly lower. They care about actually being able to do this without having to turn out their entire living room. So, the way that you actually make that apply to the mainstream is, do something spectacular in VR that can’t be done any other way and make people want to experience that. So ultimately, what we’re waiting on more than tech is content, and the design strategies and the design language that we’re lacking currently, that we’re just inheriting from regular video games.

from VRFocus http://ift.tt/2kZU498